Peppino Lo Cicero, ex-tueur à gages de la Camorra est fier de son fils qui gravit les échelons du crime organisé. Mais quand celui-ci est froidement tué dans un guet-apens, il reprend du service accompagné de son ami Toto le boucher. Leur quête de vérité va déclencher une spirale de vengeances et de trahisons dans les clans mafieux du Naples des années 70.
Tommy Spinelli (Joe Pesci) is a wiseguy hired by a pair of dimwitted hit men to transport a duffel bag full of severed heads across the United States to a crime boss (as proof of the deaths). While on a commercial flight, his bag is accidentally switched with that of Charlie Pritchett (Andy Comeau), a friendly, talkative, young American tourist who is going to Mexico to see his girlfriend Laurie (Kristy Swanson) and her parents (George Hamilton and Dyan Cannon).
Dans une petite commune de Sicile, le pharmacien Arturo Manno, connu pour ses infidélités conjugales, et son ami, le Dr. Roscio, sont assassinés au cours d'une partie de chasse. La Police conclut à un règlement de comptes, imputable à la jalousie. Deux frères, ainsi que leur père, sont accusés du meurtre de Manno car le pharmacien aurait eu une liaison avec leur sœur mineure de 15 ans. Mais Paolo Laurana, professeur, autrefois militant communiste, flaire des motifs plus graves : il découvre, notamment, que Roscio s'apprêtait à dénoncer un notable local compromis avec la Mafia et que Manno recevait des lettres de menace. La lecture du journal intime du docteur, retrouvé par son épouse Luisa, semble confirmer ses soupçons… Toutefois, Luisa, consciemment ou inconsciemment, engage Laurana dans un piège dont il ne sortira pas vivant. Quelque temps après l'inhumation du professeur Laurana, Luisa célèbre son mariage avec son cousin, l'avocat Rosello, le fameux notable impliqué dans les écrits du Dr.
Tom Stall (Viggo Mortensen) is a restaurant owner in the small town of Millbrook, Indiana, with a loving wife Edie (Maria Bello), teenage son Jack (Ashton Holmes), and young daughter Sarah (Heidi Hayes). One night two men (Stephen McHattie and Greg Bryk) attempt to rob the restaurant. When a waitress is threatened, Tom deftly kills both robbers with surprising skill and precision. He is hailed as a hero by his family and the townspeople, and the incident makes him a local celebrity.
À Palerme, le journaliste Enrico Gagliardi (Umberto Orsini) est assassiné. L'enquête est confié au commissaire Luca Miceli (Frederick Stafford). Vingt-quatre heures après le meurtre, il reçoit une dénonciation téléphonique anonyme qui le conduit à l'auteur présumé. Mais Miceli doute de sa cupapibilité et poursuit son enquête.
Fico Fellove is the owner of El Tropico, a swank nightclub in late 1950s. Fico lives for his family and his music, but the harsh realities of a dictatorial regime threaten to destroy both. His brother Ricardo becomes a revolutionary while his other brother Luis joins the democratic opposition while his father Federico, a well-respected university professor, believes that Batista should be replaced by constitutional means.
Chicago, 1919: A young Al Capone arrives to work for mob boss Johnny Torrio. He meets Torrio's top man, "Big Jim" Colosimo, who runs business and politics in the First Ward while secretly on Torrio's payroll.
The opening screen says: "Some of this actually happened."
In 1978, con artists Irving Rosenfeld (Christian Bale) and Sydney Prosser (Amy Adams) have started a relationship and are working together. Sydney has improved Rosenfeld's scams, posing as English aristocrat "Lady Edith Greensly". Irving loves Sydney, though is hesitant to leave his unstable and histrionic wife Rosalyn (Jennifer Lawrence), fearing he will lose contact with her son Danny, whom Irving has adopted. Rosalyn has also threatened to report Irving to the police if he leaves her.
In 1968, Frank Lucas, the limo driver-turned-right-hand man of Harlem gangster Ellsworth "Bumpy" Johnson, inherits Johnson's gang when Johnson dies of a heart attack. Disliking the new, flashy gangsters of the neighborhood, Lucas decides to take control of Harlem's crime scene.
Larry Gigli (Ben Affleck) is a low-ranking Los Angeles mobster who isn't nearly as tough as he likes to act. He is commanded to kidnap the mentally challenged younger brother of a powerful federal prosecutor to save New York-based mob boss Starkman (Al Pacino) from prison. Gigli successfully convinces the young man, Brian (Justin Bartha), to go off with him by promising to take him "to the Baywatch", which seems to be Brian's singular obsession, and turns out to just be the beach. The man who ordered the kidnapping, Louis (Lenny Venito), does not trust Gigli to get the job done right, so he hires a woman calling herself Ricki (Jennifer Lopez) to take charge.